Fee management system, transmission system, and fee management method

ABSTRACT

A disclosed fee management system is for managing attending fees that are charged when transmission terminals attend a conversation in a transmission management system, which manages transmission of information associated with the conversation between the transmission terminals. The fee management system includes an acquisition unit configured to acquire attending hours information and conversation quality information, the attending hours information indicating attending hours for which the respective transmission terminals have attended the conversation, the conversation quality information indicating conversation communication service quality provided during the conversation; an attending hours computing unit configured to compute total attending hours based on the attending hours information, the total attending hours indicating hours for which the terminal has attended the conversation; and an attending fee computing unit configured to compute an attending fee for each of the terminals based on the corresponding total attending hours and the conversation quality information.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The disclosures herein are generally related to a fee management system,a transmission system, and a fee management method.

2. Description of the Related Art

There has been a dramatic increase in the number of people who remotelyhold conversations with each other using transmission terminals such asPCs (personal computers) or mobile phones. Further, such a conversation(e.g., conference) may be held not only between the two locations (twopeople) but also be held between multiple locations (three or morepeople).

Further, an administrator who administers communications service forholding the conversation between the transmission terminals (users)obtains profits by charging each of users of the transmission terminalsa communication fee. Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 9-172509(hereinafter referred to as “Patent Document 1”) discloses a method ofequally charging each of attendees of the conversation a communicationfee from a start to an end of the conversation. This method managescommunication fees of multiple locations so as to efficiently manage thecommunications fees for an entire conference. More specifically, thismethod pertains to a method for controlling a multiple locationconference that is simultaneously held at three or more locations. Themethod includes managing communication fees of conference attendingterminals (i.e., terminals used by conference attendees) and acommunication fee of a multiple location conference control apparatus.

RELATED ART DOCUMENTS Patent Document

-   Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No.    9-172509

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is a general object of at least one embodiment of the presentinvention to provide a fee management system, a transmission system, anda fee management method that substantially obviate one or more problemscaused by the limitations and disadvantages of the related art.

According to one aspect of the embodiment, there is provided a feemanagement system for managing attending fees that are charged when aplurality of transmission terminals attend a conversation in atransmission management system, which manages transmission ofinformation associated with the conversation between the transmissionterminals. The fee management system includes an acquisition unitconfigured to acquire attending hours information and conversationquality information, the attending hours information indicatingattending hours for which each of the transmission terminals hasattended the conversation, the conversation quality informationindicating conversation communication service quality provided duringthe conversation; an attending hours computing unit configured tocompute total attending hours based on the attending hours information,the total attending hours indicating hours for which the respectiveterminals have attended the conversation; and an attending fee computingunit configured to compute an attending fee for each of the terminalsbased on the corresponding total attending hours and the conversationquality information.

The object and advantages of the invention will be realized and attainedby means of the elements and combinations particularly pointed out inthe claims.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and arenot restrictive of the invention as claimed.

Other objects and further features of the present invention will beapparent from the following detailed description when read inconjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a transmission systemaccording to an embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a transmitting or receivingstatus of image data, audio data, and various types of managementinformation in the transmission system;

FIGS. 3A to 3C are schematic diagrams illustrating qualities of theimage data;

FIG. 4 is a hardware configuration diagram illustrating a transmissionterminal according to an embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a hardware configuration diagram illustrating the transmissionterminal according to the embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a functional block diagram illustrating a terminal accordingto an embodiment;

FIG. 7 is a functional block diagram illustrating a management systemaccording to an embodiment;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram illustrating a process rule managementtable;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating raw history information;

FIG. 10A is a schematic diagram illustrating an attendee historymanagement table;

FIG. 10B is a schematic diagram illustrating a conference historymanagement table;

FIG. 11 is a functional block diagram illustrating a fee managementsystem serving as a featured part of an embodiment;

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram illustrating a user management table;

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating a process performed by themanagement system in which raw history information is processed tocreate process history information;

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating a process from receiving anacquisition request for acquiring process history information from auser to providing the user with the process history information;

FIG. 15A is a diagram illustrating an acquisition target period of theprocess history information;

FIG. 15B is a diagram illustrating search requirements for searching forraw history information;

FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen displayed on adisplay of an external input apparatus;

FIG. 17 is a sequence diagram illustrating a fee charge method;

FIG. 18 is a schematic diagram illustrating a summary of attending fees;

FIG. 19A is a schematic diagram illustrating an attendee historymanagement table; and

FIG. 19B is a schematic diagram illustrating a conference historymanagement table.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In the following, a description will be given of embodiments withreference to FIGS. 1 to 18. Note that FIG. 1 is a schematicconfiguration diagram illustrating a transmission system 1 according toan embodiment. The transmission system 1 includes a data providingsystem configured to transmit content data from a transmission terminalto another transmission terminal via a transmission management system50, or a communications system configured to mutually transmitinformation, emotions, or the like between a plural transmissionterminals via the transmission management system. The communicationssystem serves as a system for mutually transmitting information,emotions, or the like between plural communications terminals (i.e., the“transmission terminals”) via a communications management system (i.e.,the “transmission management system”). Examples of such a communicationssystem include a teleconference system, a videophone system, and amobile phone system.

The present embodiment describes a transmission system, a transmissionmanagement system, a transmission terminal, and the like, based on theassumption in which the teleconference system serves as an example ofthe communications system, the teleconference management system servesas an example of the communications management system, and ateleconference terminal serves as an example of the communicationsterminal. That is, a transmission terminal and a transmission managementsystem in the present embodiment may not only be applied to theteleconference system but may also be applied to the communicationssystem or the transmission system. Note that in the present embodiment,the term “teleconference” is used; however, the “teleconference” mayalso be referred to as a “videoconference”, as these two terms indicatethe same contents and may be used interchangeably.

Overall Configuration of Embodiment

The present embodiment illustrates a case in which users of thetransmission system 1 are four offices including a Tokyo office, anOsaka office, a New York office, and a Washington, D.C. office.

In FIG. 1, terminals residing in the inner side of the network from therouter 70 a are managed by the Tokyo office, terminals residing in theinner side of the network from the router 70 b are managed by the Osakaoffice, terminals residing in the inner side of the network from therouter 70 c are managed by the New York office, and terminals residingin the inner side of the network from the router 70 d are managed by theWashington, D.C. office.

The Tokyo office has plural communicators (attendees) using transmissionterminals (10 aa, 10 ab, 10 ac, . . . ) to converse (communicate) withother transmission terminals. The communicators (attendees) may, forexample, be employees.

Further, the Tokyo office has a single administrator or pluraladministrators using user terminals 20 a that receive attending feesfrom a later-described fee management system 60 as well as managing thetransmission terminals (10 aa, 10 ab, 10 ac, . . . ). Note that each ofthe Osaka office, the New York office, and the Washington, D.C. officehas plural communicators (attendees) and a single administrator orplural administrators.

Further, in this embodiment, attending fees may be generated by theusers of the transmission terminals attending the conversations (e.g.,conference) using the transmission system 1 in addition to thecommunications fees due to the communications between the transmissionterminals. The communications fees correspond to packet communicationsfees charged by an electronic communications company. At present, thereis provided a fee plan for unlimited use of packet communications with apredetermined monthly fee. Further, the attending fee may be a totalamount of charge when each of the communicators attends conversationwith another communicator using the transmission terminals. Theattending fee may be charged by the administrator of the transmissionsystem 1 for each of the users. That is, in this embodiment, theattending fee is not necessarily charged per communicator belonging tothe user or transmission terminal used by the user.

Further, in this embodiment, it is assumed that the users pay therespective attending fee and communication fees separately. Note thatthe respective users do not have to be different offices but may bedifferent companies or individuals.

The transmission system 1 illustrated in FIG. 1 includes transmissionterminals (10 aa, 10 ab, . . . ) used by the respective communicators,user terminals (20 a, 20 b, 20 c, and 20 d) used by user administrators,displays (120 aa, 120 ab, . . . ) of the respective transmissionterminals (10 aa, 10 ab, . . . ), external input apparatuses (40 aa, 40ab, . . . ) serving as client personal computers (PCs), relay devices(30 a, 30 b, 30 c, and 30 d), a transmission management system 50, a feemanagement system 60, a program providing system 90, and a maintenancesystem 100. The transmission terminals 10 are configured to transmitimage data and audio data when receiving the image data and the audiodata as an example of content data.

Note that in the following, any of the transmission terminals (10 aa, 10ab, . . . ) may be represented by the “terminal 10”, and any of the userterminals (20 aa, 20 ab, . . . ) may be represented by the “terminal20”. Further, any of the displays (120 aa, 120 ab, . . . ) may berepresented by the “display 120”, any of the external input apparatuses(40 aa, 40 ab, . . . ) may be represented by the “external inputapparatus 40”, and any of the relay devices (30 a, 30 b, 30 c, and 30 d)may be represented by the “relay device 30”. In addition, a terminalserving as a request source to request initiation of a teleconferencemay be represented by a “request source terminal”, and a terminalserving as a request destination (relay destination) may be representedby a “destination terminal”.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a transmitting or receivingstatus of the image data, the audio data, and various types ofmanagement information in the transmission system. As illustrated inFIG. 2, in the transmission system 1, a management information sessionsei for transmitting or receiving various types of managementinformation is established between the request source terminal and thedestination terminal via a transmission management system 50. Further,four sessions for transmitting or receiving the respective four datasets including high resolution image data, medium resolution image data,low resolution image data, and the audio data are established betweenthe request source terminal and the destination terminal via the relaydevice 30. In this example, the four sessions are integrally representedby an image-audio data session sed. Note that image data sessions arenot necessarily divided based on resolution levels. Note also that theimage data sessions may be less than three or more than three.

Note that a description is given of image resolutions of image datahandled in the present embodiment with reference to FIGS. 3A to 3C.FIGS. 3A to 3C are schematic diagrams illustrating qualities of theimage data. FIG. 3A illustrates a low resolution image serving as a baseimage having 160 pixels in a horizontal direction and 120 pixels in avertical direction. FIG. 3B illustrates a medium resolution image having320 pixels in a horizontal direction and 240 pixels in a verticaldirection. FIG. 3C illustrates a high resolution image having 640 pixelsin a horizontal direction and 480 pixels in a vertical direction. Amongthese, when the image data are relayed via a narrowband route, the lowresolution image data formed of low resolution image data alone servingas a base image are relayed. When the image data are relayed via arelatively wideband route, the low resolution image data serving as thebase image, and the medium resolution image data formed of mediumresolution image data are relayed. Further, when the image data arerelayed via a extremely wideband route, the low resolution image dataserving as the base image, the medium resolution image data formed ofmedium resolution image data, and the high resolution image data formedof high resolution image data are relayed. Note also that the image datamay be dynamic or static images or a combination of the dynamic andstatic image data.

The relay device 30 illustrated in FIG. 1 is configured to relay contentdata between plural terminals 10.

The transmission management system 50 is configured to manage loginauthentication requested by the terminals 10, call conditions of theterminals 10, a list of addresses (destinations), communicationhistories, and communications conditions of the relay devices 30 in aunitary manner. Note that a detailed description of the transmissionmanagement system 50 will be given later.

The fee management system 60 may be the features of the embodiment ofthe present invention. The fee management system 60 is configured tocompute an attending fee for each user, and manage a fee including theattending fee that is charged to each user. Note that a detaileddescription of the fee management system 60 will be given later.Alternatively, the fee management system 60 may be configured not onlyto compute the attending fee but also to calculate a communications feefor each user so as to manage charging of the communications fee to eachuser.

The routers (70 a, 70 b, 70 c, 70 d, 70 ab, 70 cd) is configured toselect the optimal route for transmitting image data and audio data.Note that in the following, any of the routers (70 a, 70 b, 70 c, 70 d,70 ab, 70 cd) may be represented by the “router 70”.

The program providing system 90 includes a later-described hard disk(HD) 204. The HD 204 is configured to store terminal programs to causethe terminal 10 to implement various functions (or allow the terminal 10to function as various units), and transmit the terminal programs to theterminal 10. Further, the HD 204 of the program providing system 90 isconfigured to further store relay device programs to cause the relaydevice 30 to implement various functions (or allow the relay device 30to function as various units), and transmit the relay device programs tothe relay device 30.

Moreover, the HD 204 of the program providing system 90 is configured tofurther store transmission management programs to cause the transmissionmanagement system 50 to implement various functions (or allow thetransmission management system 50 to function as various units), andtransmit the transmission management programs to the transmissionmanagement system 50. Further, the HD 204 of the program providingsystem 90 is configured to store fee management programs to cause thefee management system 60 to implement various functions (or allow thefee management system 60 to function as various units), and transmit thefee management programs to the fee management system 60.

The maintenance system 100 serves as a computer configured to maintain,manage, and service at least one of the terminal 10, the relay device30, the transmission management system 50, the fee management system 60,and the program providing system 90. For example, when the maintenancesystem 100 is domestically installed, and the terminal 10, the relaydevice 30, the transmission management system 50, the fee managementsystem 60, or the program providing system 90 is installed overseas(internationally), the maintenance system 100 may remotely maintain,manage, and service at least one of the terminal 10, the relay device30, the transmission management system 50, the fee management system 60,and the program providing system 90 via the communications network 2.Further, the maintenance system 100 is configured to further maintain amodel number, a serial number, a sale destination, service, or a failurehistory of at least one of the terminal 10, the relay device 30, thetransmission management system 50, the fee management system 60, and theprogram providing system 90.

Note that the terminals (10 aa, 10 ab, . . . ), the relay device 30 a,and the router 70 a are connected via the LAN 2 a such that theycommunicate with one another. The external input apparatuses (40 aa, 40ab, . . . ) are connected to the terminals (10 aa, 10 ab, . . . ),respectively, such that they communicate with one another. The terminals(10 ba, 10 bb, . . . ), the relay device 30 b, and the router 70 b areconnected via the LAN 2 b such that they communicate with one another.The external input apparatuses (40 ba, 40 bb, . . . ) are connected tothe terminals (10 ba, 10 bb, . . . ), respectively, such that theycommunicate with one another. Further, the LAN 2 a and LAN 2 b areconnected to the dedicated line 2 ab including the router 70 ab suchthat they communicate with one another within a predetermined region A.For example, the region A may be Japan, and the LAN 2 a is installedwithin the Tokyo office whereas the LAN 2 b is installed within Osakaoffice, as already described above.

On the other hand, the terminals (10 ca, 10 cb, . . . ), the relaydevice 30 c, and the router 70 c are connected via the LAN 2 c such thatthey communicate with one another. The external input apparatuses (40ca, 40 cb, . . . ) are connected to the terminals (10 ca, 10 cb, . . .), respectively, such that they communicate with one another. Theterminals (10 da, 10 db, . . . ), the relay device 30 d, and the router70 d are connected via the LAN 2 d such that they communicate with oneanother. The external input apparatuses (40 da, 40 db, . . . ) areconnected to the terminals (10 da, 10 db, . . . ), respectively, suchthat they communicate with one another. Further, the LAN 2 c and LAN 2 dare connected to the dedicated line 2 cd including the router 70 cd suchthat they communicate with each other within a predetermined region B.For example, the region B may be the United States of America (the USA),and the LAN 2 c is installed within the New York office whereas the LAN2 d is installed within Washington, D.C. office, as already describedabove. The region A and the region B are connected such that theycommunicate with each other from the respective routers (70 ab and 70cd) via the Internet 2 i. Further, the transmission management system 50and the fee management system 60 are connected via the dedicated line 2x such that they communicate with each other.

Moreover, the transmission management system 50, the fee managementsystem 60, the program providing system 90, and the maintenance system100 are connected to the terminal 10 and the relay device 30 via theInternet 2 i such that they communicate with one another. Thetransmission management system 50, the fee management system 60, theprogram providing system 90, and the maintenance system 100 may beinstalled in the region A or region B, or may be installed in a regionother than regions A and B.

Note that in this embodiment, the communications network 2 is formed ofthe LAN 2 a, the LAN 2 b, the dedicated line 2 ab, the Internet 2 i, thededicated line 2 cd, the dedicated line 2 x, the LAN 2 c, and the LAN 2d. The communications network 2 not only includes areas where wiredcommunications are performed but also includes areas where wirelesscommunications such as wireless fidelity (WiFi) or Bluetooth (registeredtrademark) are performed.

Moreover, in FIG. 1, a typical IPv4 address is simply represented by acombination of four digits that is noted beneath each of the terminals10, the relay devices 30, the transmission management system 50, the feemanagement system 60, the routers 70, the program providing system 90,and the maintenance system 100. The combination of four digitsillustrated beneath the fee management system 60 simply represents theIPv4 address in the communications management server 510. For example,the terminal 10 aa is “1.2.1.3”. The IPv6 may be used in place of theIPv4; however, the IPv4 alone is employed for simplifying illustrationof the embodiments.

Note that each of the terminals 10 may be used not only forcommunications between plural offices but for communications betweendifferent rooms within the same office, communications betweenindividuals within the same room, or communications between those insidethe building and those outside the building. When the terminals 10 areused outside the building, wireless communications such as a mobilephone communications network are used.

Hardware Configuration of Embodiment

Initially, a hardware configuration according to an embodiment isdescribed.

FIG. 4 is a hardware configuration diagram illustrating the terminal 10according to an embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 4, the terminal 10 ofthe embodiment includes a central processing unit (CPU) 101 configuredto control overall operations of the terminal 10; a read-only memory(ROM) 102 configured to store programs used to drive the CPU 101 such asan initial program loader (IPL); a random access memory (RAM) 103configured to be used as a work area of the CPU 101; a flash memory 104configured to store terminal programs, and various types of dataincluding image data and audio data; a solid state drive (SSD) 105configured to control reading or writing of various types of data withrespect to the flash memory 104 under control of the CPU 101; a mediadrive 107 configured to control reading or wiring (storing) data withrespect to a recording medium 106 such as flash memory; an operationsbutton 108 configured to be operated when an address of the terminal 10is selected; a power switch 109 configured to switch ON or OFF of thepower of the terminal 10; and a network interface (I/F) 111 configuredto transmit data via the communications network 2.

The terminal 10 is configured to further include a built-in camera 112configured to image a subject to obtain image data under control of theCPU 101; an imaging element I/F 113 configured to control driving of thecamera 112; a microphone 114 configured to input sound and voice; aspeaker 115 configured to output sound and voice; an audio input-outputI/F 116 configured to process input and output of audio signals betweenthe microphone 114 and the speaker 115 under control of the CPU 101; adisplay I/F 117 configured to transmit image data to an external display120 under control of the CPU 101; an external apparatus connecting I/F118 configured to connect various types of apparatuses; an alarm lamp119 configured to alert malfunctioning of various types of functions ofthe terminal 10; and a bus line 110 such as an address bus or a data busconfigured to electrically connect the above-described components asillustrated in FIG. 4.

The display 120 serves as a display part composed of liquid crystal ororganic electroluminescence (EL) configured to display an image of asubject or operations icons. The display 120 is connected to the displayI/F 117 with a cable 120 c. The cable 120 c may be an analog RGB (videographics array (VGA)) signal cable, a component video cable, ahigh-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) cable or a digital videointeractive (DVI) signal cable.

The camera 112 includes lenses, and a solid-state imaging elementconfigured to convert light into electric charges to electronicallyconvert an image (video) of a subject. The camera 112 employs acomplementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) or a charge coupleddevice (CCD) as the solid-state imaging element.

The external apparatus connecting I/F 118 may be a universal serial bus(USB) cable or the like inserted in a not-illustrated connecting port ofa not-illustrated housing of the terminal 10, via which an externalcamera, an external microphone, and an external speaker may beelectrically connected. When the external camera is connected, theexternal camera is configured to be driven in priority to the built-incamera 112 under control of the CPU 101. Likewise, when the externalmicrophone or the external speaker is connected, the external microphoneor the external speaker is configured to be driven in priority to thebuilt-in microphone 114 or the built-in speaker 115, respectively, undercontrol of the CPU 101.

Note that the recording medium 106 is configured to be removable withrespect to the terminal 10. Further, the recording medium 106 is notlimited to the flash memory 104, but may be any nonvolatile memory suchas an electrically erasable and programmable ROM (EEPROM), from whichdata are read or on which data are written under control of the CPU 101.

Note that the terminal 10 is only an example, and may be ageneral-purpose personal computer (PC), a smart phone, a tabletterminal, or a mobile phone. Note also that the camera 112, themicrophone 114, and the speaker 115 are not necessarily built-in types,and may be externally connected.

Further, the above-described terminal programs may be recorded as filesin an installable format or executable format. The terminal programs maybe recorded and distributed in a computer-readable recording medium(e.g., the recording medium 106). Moreover, the terminal programs may bestored in the ROM 102 instead of the flash memory 104.

FIG. 5 is a hardware configuration diagram illustrating the transmissionmanagement system 50 according to an embodiment. The transmissionmanagement system 50 includes a central processing unit (CPU) 201configured to control overall operations of the transmission managementsystem 50; a read-only memory (ROM) 202 configured to store programsused to drive the CPU 201 such as an initial program loader (IPL); arandom access memory (RAM) 203 configured to be used as a work area ofthe CPU 201; a hard disk (HD) 204 configured to store transmissionmanagement programs, and various types of data; a hard disk drive (HDD)205 configured to control reading or writing of various types of datawith respect to the HD 204 under control of the CPU 201; a media drive207 configured to control reading or wiring (storing) data with respectto a recording medium 206 such as flash memory; a display 208 configuredto display various types of information such as a cursor, menus,windows, characters, or images; a network interface I/F 209 configuredto transmit data via the communications network 2; a keyboard 211configured to include plural keys for inputting characters, numericalvalues, various and instructions; a mouse 212 configured to executevarious instructions, select a process target, or move the cursor; aCD-ROM drive 214 configured to control reading or writing various typesof data with respect to a compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) 213serving as an example of a removable recording medium; and a bus line210 such as an address bus or a data bus configured to electricallyconnect the above-described components as illustrated in FIG. 5.

Note that the above-described transmission management programs may berecorded as files in an installable format or executable format. Thetransmission management programs may be recorded and distributed in acomputer-readable recording medium such as the recording medium 206 orthe CD-ROM 213. Moreover, the transmission management programs may bestored in the ROM 202 instead of the HD 204.

Further, the relay device 30 has a similar hardware configuration asthat of the transmission management system 50, and hence, thedescription of the hardware configuration of the relay device 30 isomitted from the specification. However, the HD 204 of the relay device30 records relay device programs configured to control the relay device30. In this case, the relay device programs may be recorded as files inan installable format or executable format. The relay device programsmay be recorded and distributed in a computer-readable recording mediumsuch as the recording medium 206 or the CD-ROM 213. Further, the relaydevice programs may be stored in the ROM 202 instead of the HD 204.

Further, the external input apparatus 40 has a similar hardwareconfiguration as that of the transmission management system 50, andhence, the description of the hardware configuration of the externalinput apparatus 40 is omitted from the specification. However, the HD204 of the external input apparatus 40 records external input apparatusprograms configured to control the external input apparatus 40. In thiscase, the external input apparatus programs may be recorded as files inan installable format or executable format. The external input apparatusprograms may be recorded and distributed in a computer-readablerecording medium such as the recording medium 206 or the CD-ROM 213.Moreover, the above-described external input apparatus programs may bestored in the ROM 202 instead of the HD 204.

Further, the program providing system 90 has a similar hardwareconfiguration as that of the transmission management system 50, andhence, the description of the hardware configuration of the programproviding system 90 is omitted from the specification. However, the HD204 of the program providing system 90 records program providingprograms configured to control the program providing system 90. In thiscase, the program providing programs may be recorded as files in aninstallable format or executable format. The program providing programsmay be recorded and distributed in a computer-readable recording mediumsuch as the recording medium 206 or the CD-ROM 213. Moreover, theabove-described program providing programs may be stored in the ROM 202instead of the HD 204.

Further, the maintenance system 100 has a similar hardware configurationas that of the transmission management system 50, and hence, thedescription of the hardware configuration of the maintenance system 100is omitted from the specification. However, the HD 204 of themaintenance system 100 records maintenance programs configured tocontrol the maintenance system 100. In this case, the maintenanceprograms may be recorded as files in an installable format or executableformat. The maintenance programs may be recorded and distributed in acomputer-readable recording medium such as the recording medium 206 orthe CD-ROM 213. Further, the maintenance programs may be stored in theROM 202 instead of the HD 204.

Note that the relay device programs may be recorded and distributed in acomputer-readable recording medium such as a compact disc recordable(CD-R), a digital versatile disk (DVD), or a Blu-ray (registeredtrademark) disc (BD) serving as another example of the removablerecording medium.

Functional Configuration of Embodiment

Next, a description is given of the terminal 10, the transmissionmanagement system 50, and the fee management system 60 of theembodiment. Note that illustration of functional configurations of therelay device 30, the external input apparatus 10, the router 70, theprogram providing system 90, and the maintenance system 100 is omittedfrom the specification.

Transmission Terminal

FIG. 6 is a functional block diagram illustrating the terminal 10 of anembodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 6, the terminal 10 is configured toinclude a transmitting-receiving part 11, an operations input receiver12, an audio input-output part 13, an imaging part 14, an image displaycontroller 15, a conversation quality determining part 16, and a historyinformation generator 17.

The above-described parts may be functions or units to function that maybe implemented by causing any of the components illustrated in FIG. 4 tooperate based on the instructions from the CPU 101 in compliance withthe terminal programs deployed in the RAM 103 from the flash memory 104.

The transmitting-receiving part 11 is implemented by the instructionsfrom the CPU 101 and the network I/F 111 illustrated in FIG. 4, andconfigured to transmit to and receive from other terminals, apparatusesor systems various data or information via the communications network 2.

The operations input receiver 12 is implemented by instructions from theCPU 101, the operations button 108 and the power switch 109 illustratedin FIG. 4, and configured to receive various types of inputs from auser. For example, when the user switches ON the power switch 109, theoperations input receiver 12 receives the user's switching ON operationto switch ON the power of the terminal 10.

The audio input-output part 13 is implemented by the instructions fromthe CPU 101, and the audio input-output I/F 116 illustrated in FIG. 4.The microphone 114 converts the user's voice into audio signals, and theaudio input-output part 13 then inputs audio data associated with theaudio signals. Further, the audio input-output part 13 outputs the audiosignals associated with the audio data to the speaker 115, and causesthe speaker 115 to output the voice.

The imaging part 14 is implemented by instructions from the CPU 101, thecamera 112 and the imaging element I/F 113 illustrated in FIG. 4, andconfigured to image a subject and output the image data of the imagedsubject.

The display controller 15 is implemented by instructions from the CPU101, and the display I/F 117 illustrated in FIG. 4, and configured tocontrol transmission of the image data to be displayed to the display120.

The conversation quality determining part 16 is configured to determinea conversation quality. The conversation quality indicates a quality ofa conversational communications service provided by the transmissionsystem (or the transmission management system 50) while the user isengaged in conversation. Hence, the user having a comfortableconversation indicates that that the user is provided with a highconversation quality, whereas the user having a uncomfortableconversation indicates that that the user is provided with a lowconversation quality.

For example, in a case of the communications service employing theInternet network or the mobile phone network, the voice or sound may beinterrupted (sound interruption), video images may be skipped (imageskipping) in a video conference, or resolution of the video images maybe drastically lowered, due to degradation of such networks. Asdescribed above, the conversation quality may be affected bytransmitting or receiving quality of the audio data and image data.Hence, when the user has a conversation (in a conference) being providedwith high resolution video images without sound interruption and imageskipping, the conversation quality determining part 16 determines thatthe user is provided with a high conversation quality. On the otherhand, when the user has a conversation (in a conference) being providedwith low resolution video images with sound interruption and imageskipping, the conversation quality determining part 16 determines thatthe user is provided with a low conversation quality.

Note that the conversation quality may be represented by scores,numerical values, ranking evaluation (e.g., A, B, and C), or the likebased on a predetermined standard. Alternatively, the conversationquality may, for example, be represented by percentage computed asfollows. That is, the mean resolution (640×480=307200 dots) received bythe terminal 10 during conversation may be divided by a standardresolution (640×480) determined by the service. Further, theconversation quality may, for example, be represented by the transmittedmean resolution or the mean received frame rate. Moreover, theconversation quality may, for example, be represented by the number ofobservations of sound interruption or image skipping, or a compoundvalue computed based on the observations of the sound interruption orimage skipping. In this embodiment, the scores from 0 to 100 may beemployed for simplifying the description.

The history information generator 17 is configured to generate historyinformation (log information) associated with a communications status ofeach of the terminals 10. The generated history information may betransmitted to the transmission management system 50 when thecommunication status is changed. Note that the transmitted historyinformation corresponds to the raw history information illustrated inFIG. 9.

Note that the generated history information includes conversationquality values (e.g., scores). Note that the conversation qualityindicates a quality of conversation in communications every time thecommunications implementing a conference are completed. Hence, theconversation quality value is determined when the communications statusindicates the end of the conference (e.g., when the communicationsstatus is “leave” or “offline”), and the determined conversation qualityvalue is input into a “conversation quality” field within the historyinformation.

Transmission Management System

FIG. 7 is a functional block diagram illustrating the transmissionmanagement system 50 of an embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 7, thetransmission management system 50 includes a communications managementserver 510; a temporary storage server 520; plural process servers(5301, 5302, . . . , 530N) (N represents an integer); a historyinformation management server 540; a terminal setting utility server550; a charge history creating server 560; and a file transfer server570. The above-described servers are connected to one another via a LAN590 such that the servers communicate with one another, while theservers are connected to the Internet 2 i via the LAN 590.

Note that each of the servers forming the transmission management system50 has a similar hardware configuration as that of the transmissionmanagement system 50, and hence, the description of the hardwareconfigurations of the servers is omitted from the specification.Further, any of the process servers (5301, 5302, . . . , 530N) may berepresented by the “process server 530”. Further, the file transferserver 570 is also connected to the dedicated line 2 x.

Communications Management Server

Subsequently, a description is given of featured functions of thecommunications management server 510. The communications managementserver 510 is configured to include a transmitting-receiving part 511,and a communications controller 512.

The transmitting-receiving part 511 is a function or a unit that may beimplemented by instructions from the CPU 201, and the network I/F 209illustrated in FIG. 5. The transmitting-receiving part 511 is configuredto transmit to and receive from other terminals, apparatuses or systemsvarious data or information via the communications network 2 includingthe LAN 590, and the Internet 2 i. For example, thetransmitting-receiving part 511 may receive raw history informationindicating a history associated with communications performed in each ofthe terminals 10 from the corresponding terminal 10 via the Internet 2 iand the LAN 590.

Note that the raw history information is information indicating ahistory (log) associated with the communications status of each of theterminals 10. That is, the raw history information is raw informationbefore a later-described process is being performed. FIG. 9 illustratesan example of a raw history information group. Each of the raw historyinformation items is represented per schema record illustrated in FIG.9. Each of the raw history information items is formed of attributesincluding a communications status, a request source terminal ID, adestination terminal ID, a session IF, a conference ID, a conferencesession ID, communications date and time, and a conversation quality.

Among these attributes, the attribute “communications status” representsone of types of the communications contents of the terminal 10. Further,among these communication statuses, the communications status “online”represents an ON status of the power of the terminal 10. Thecommunications status “offline” represents an OFF status of the power ofthe terminal 10. Note that when the communications status is switched to“offline” during the conference, respective values are stored in thefields of the conference ID and the conference session ID. Thecommunications status “invite” represents an invitation request forbeing invited to the conference. The communications status “call”represents an attending request for attending the conference being held.The communications status “accept” represents a permission to theinvitation request (invite) or the attending request (call). Thecommunications status “start” represents an initiation of theconference. The communications status “end” represents an end of theconference. The communications status “join” represents the terminal 10attending the conference. The communications status “leave” representsthe terminal 10 exiting from the conference.

Further, the attribute “request source terminal ID” representsidentification (ID) for identifying the request source terminal as anexample of request source terminal identification information. Moreover,the attribute “destination terminal ID” represents identification (ID)for identifying the destination terminal as an example of destinationterminal identification information. Moreover, the attribute “sessionID” represents identification (ID) for identifying a session from onlineto offline. Further, the attribute “conference ID” representsidentification (ID) for identifying a conference. Moreover, theattribute “conference session ID” represents identification (ID) foridentifying a conference session from the terminal 10 attending theconference to the terminal 10 exiting from the conference. For example,when the terminal 10 attends the same conference or exits from the sameconference two or more times with time intervals, the conference sessionID has a difference value each time the terminal 10 attends theconference or exits from the same conference. Further, the attribute“communications date and time” represent date and time of communicationsperformed by the terminal 10 with the above-described communicationsstatuses.

The attribute “conversation quality” indicates degrees of quality of theconversation held in the conference communications when the conferenceutilizing the terminal 10 has completed. In this embodiment, the“conversation quality” is evaluated by the scores from 0 to 100. Forexample, when the “conversation quality” is a score of 100, audio dataand image data communications are provided with the highestcommunications status during the conference, which indicates that thehighest quality conversation is provided in the conferencecommunications.

Note that the above-described attributes and the communications statusesare only examples, and may include other data items and values. Further,in this example, each of the attributes is clearly defined such as adatabase (DB) table. However, the raw history information may includevarious items, and hence, the raw history information may be configuredto include text data items alone such as JavaScript Object Notation(JSON), and extensible markup language (XML).

The display controller 512 is a function or a unit that may beimplemented by instructions from the CPU 201 illustrated in FIG. 5, andconfigured to perform control in association with communicationsexecuted between the transmitting-receiving part 511 and each of theterminals 10 based on the management information session sei illustratedin FIG. 2. For example, the communications controller 512 performsmanagement of the communications with each of the terminals, control andmanagement for receiving the raw history information from each of theterminals 10, and control and management for transmitting laterdescribed process history information to the terminal 10 that hasrequested acquiring the process history information. Note that theterminal 10 that has requested acquiring the process history informationis referred to as the “acquisition request source terminal”.

Temporary Storage Server

Next, a description is given of featured functions of the temporarystorage server 520. The temporary storage server 520 is configured toinclude a transmitting-receiving part 521, and a temporary storage part529.

The transmitting-receiving part 521 is a function or a unit that may beimplemented by instructions from the CPU 201, and the network I/F 209illustrated in FIG. 5. The transmitting-receiving part 521 is configuredto transmit to or receive from other servers various types of data (orinformation) via the LAN 590. For example, the transmitting-receivingpart 521 may receive raw history information indicating a historyassociated with communications in each of the terminals 10 from thetransmitting-receiving part 521 of the communications management server510 via the LAN 590.

Further, the transmitting-receiving part 521 transmits raw historyinformation stored in the temporary storage part 529 to the processserver 530 via the LAN 590. The transmitting-receiving part 521 receivesthe raw history information returned from the process server 530.

Further, the temporary storage part 529 is composed of the HD 204 andthe HDD 205 illustrated in FIG. 5. The temporary storage part 529 isconfigured to temporarily store the raw history information received bythe transmitting-receiving part 511, and read the already stored rawhistory information to the transmitting-receiving part.

Process Server

Next, a description is given of featured functions of the process server530. FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram illustrating a process rulemanagement table. FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating raw historyinformation. FIG. 10A is a schematic diagram illustrating an attendeehistory management table. FIG. 10B is a schematic diagram illustrating aconference history management table. In the present embodiment, thetemporary storage server 520 and the process server 530 are separatelyconstructed, which enables the transmission management system 50 toreceive the raw history information until the end of a process carriedout by the process server 530. Further, there are plural process servers530 in the transmission management system 50. Hence, plural sets of theraw history information may be distributed to these process servers 530to separately process the respective sets of the raw historyinformation, which may distribute the process load between these processservers 530.

The process server 530 is configured to include a transmitting-receivingpart 531, a process part 532, and a process rule management part 539.The transmitting-receiving part 531 is a function or a unit that may beimplemented by instructions from the CPU 201, and the network I/F 209illustrated in FIG. 5.

The transmitting-receiving part 531 is configured to transmit to orreceive from other servers various types of data (or information) viathe LAN 590.

The process rule management part 539 is composed of the HD 204 and theHDD 205 illustrated in FIG. 5. The process rule management part 539 iscomposed of a process rule management table (T) in which communicationsstatus information indicating a communication status of a predeterminedterminal 10 is associated with process contents information indicatingthe contents of the process. The process rule management table (T) isconfigured to include the attributes (fields) including a process startrequirement, a post-process target table, a post-process target record,and process contents as illustrated in FIG. 8.

The attribute “process start requirement” indicates a requirement forthe process part to start processing based on the process contents. Theprocess start requirement may differ based on the “communicationsstatus”, the “conference ID”, and the “conference session ID”.

The attribute “post-process target table” indicates one of thepost-process tables (t1, and t2) illustrated in FIGS. 10A and 10B. Theattribute “post-process target record” indicates a predetermined one ofrecords of the post-process tables (t1, and t2) illustrated in FIGS. 10Aand 10B.

Further, the attribute “process contents” indicates contents of aprocess in which the process part 532 performs a process on the rawhistory information to form process history information by associating aspecific one of items of the raw history information with acorresponding one of items of the process history information.

Note that when there is no post-process target record in the processrule management table (T), the process part 532 newly creates recordscorresponding to the post-process tables (t1, and t2).

Further, when values are already entered in all the items subject toprocessing at the time of performing the process, the process part 532does not perform any process. When no process start requirement(communication status) is applicable, the process part 532 does notperform any process. When values are not entered in the start date andtime or the end date and time of any terminal 10 in the raw historyinformation at the time of updating the conference hours, the processpart 532 does not perform any process. When values are not entered inthe attending date and time or the exit date and time of any terminal 10in the raw history information at the time of updating the attendinghours, the process part 532 does not perform any process.

Note that the above-described process rule is only an example, and aprocess rule differing from the above-described process rule may bedefined. Alternatively, the process rule may be defined by a programrepresenting the process rule without using the process rule managementtable (T) so that the process is performed based on the process ruleprogram.

The process part 532 is a function or a unit that may be implemented byinstructions from the CPU 201 illustrated in FIG. 5, and configured toperform various types of processes such as creating process historyinformation indicating a post-process history by carrying out apredetermined process with respect to the raw history information.

As an example of various types of processes, the process part 532 maydetermine whether raw history information is stored in the temporarystorage part 529 via the transmitting-receiving part 531, the LAN 590,and the transmitting-receiving part 521. Further, the process part 532searches the process rule management table (T) for communication statusinformation indicating the communication status contained in the rawhistory information received by the transmitting-receiving part 531 as asearch key to extract a corresponding process information. Further, theprocess part 532 performs a process on the received raw historyinformation in compliance with the process contents indicated by theextracted process information to create process history informationindicating a post-process history.

The process part 532 stores the process history information create bythe process part 532 in the process history part 547 of thelater-described history management server 540 via thetransmitting-receiving part 531 and the LAN 590. Further, the processpart 532 stores the raw history information in a raw history part 548 ofthe history management server 540 via the transmitting-receiving part531, and the LAN 590, regardless of the raw history information beingprocessed or unprocessed. However, when the process history storage part547 and the raw history storage part 548 fail to store the processhistory information, the process part 532 returns the raw historyinformation before being processed to the temporary storage part 529 ofthe temporary storage server 520 via the transmitting-receiving part531, the LAN 590, and the transmitting-receiving part 521.

When the raw history information has deficiency (e) due to missinginformation of the predetermined item of the raw history information,and the process part 532 fails to perform process on the raw historyinformation, the process part 532 stores the raw history informationhaving the deficiency (e) in a deficiency raw history storage part 549of the history management server 540 via the transmitting-receiving part531 and the LAN 590.

History Management Server

Next, a description is given of featured functions of a historymanagement server 540. The history management server 540 is configuredto include a transmitting-receiving part 541, a search part 542, adeficiency history excluding part 543, a process history storage part547, the raw history storage part 548, and the deficiency raw historystorage part 549.

The transmitting-receiving part 541 is a function or a unit that may beimplemented by instructions from the CPU 201, and the network I/F 209illustrated in FIG. 5. The transmitting-receiving part 541 is configuredto transmit to or receive from other servers various types of data (orinformation) via the LAN 590.

The search part 542 searches the process history storage part 547 forthe process history information corresponding to the acquisitionrequest, and extracts the process history information corresponding tothe acquisition request.

The deficiency history excluding part 543 is a function or a unit thatmay be implemented by instructions from the CPU 201 illustrated in FIG.5. When the deficiency history excluding part 543 receives anacquisition request for acquiring the process history information fromthe external input apparatus 40 connected to the acquisition requestsource terminal, the deficiency history excluding part 543 checkswhether there is deficiency (E) due to missing information of thepredetermined items in each of the acquisition requested process historyinformation sets stored in the process history storage part 547. Whenthe deficiency history excluding part 543 detects the deficiency (E) inthe process history information, the deficiency history excluding part543 excludes such process history information having the deficiency (E).

Note that when the temporary storage part 529 stores the raw historyinformation in the order of sequential receipt from the terminals 10,the process history information will not have deficiency (E). However,an asynchronous process of the temporary storage part 529 may disturbthe temporary storage part 529 from storing the raw history informationin the order of sequential receipt from the terminals 10. As a result,the raw history information is not necessarily stored in the order ofsequential transmission from each of the terminals 10. Further, asillustrated in this embodiment, when there are process servers 530, eventhough the raw history information transmitted from each of theterminals 10 is sequentially stored in the temporary storage part 529 inthe transmitted order, the process is not necessarily performed on theraw history information in the order of being transmitted from theterminals 10. Thus, the process history information having deficiency(E) may be provided owing to the timing of acquisition requests from theacquisition request source terminal. Hence, the deficiency historyexcluding part 543 of the embodiment is configured to check whether theprocess history information has deficiency (E) in advance beforeproviding the acquisition request source terminal with the processhistory information.

Next, the process history storage part 547 stores the process historyinformation created by the process part 532 of each of the processservers 530. The process history information is, as illustrated in FIG.10A, managed as the attendee history management table (t1), and is also,as illustrated in FIG. 10B, the conference history management table(t2).

The attendee history management table (t1) is, as illustrated in FIG.10A, configured to include attributes including a history ID, a terminalID, a conference ID, a conference session ID, attending date and time,exit date and time, attending hours, an exit status, and a conversationquality. Among these attributes, the attribute “history ID” representsidentification (ID) for specifically identifying an attendee at aconference. The attribute “terminal ID” represents identification (ID)for specifically identifying a terminal attending the conference as anexample of terminal identification information. The attribute“conference ID” represents identification (ID) for specificallyidentifying a conference which the attendee or the terminal 10 hasattended.

Further, the attribute “conference session ID” represents identification(ID) for specifically identifying a conference session seim serving asan example of session sei from the terminal 10 attending (join) theconference to the terminal 10 exiting (leave) from the conference. Forexample, when a certain terminal 10 repeatedly attends the sameconference or exits from the same conference two or more times with timeintervals, the conference session ID has a difference value each timethe terminal 10 attends the same conference or exits from the sameconference.

Further, the attribute “attending date and time” represents date andtime at which the terminal 10 has attended the conference. The attribute“exit date and time” represents date and time at which the terminal 10has exited from the conference. The attribute “attending hours”represents a period of time (hours) from the time at which the terminal10 has attended the conference to the time at which the terminal 10 hasexited from the conference.

The attribute the “conversation quality” represents degrees of aconversation quality in the corresponding conference communications atthe time where the terminal 10 has completed the conference.

Further, the attribute “exit status” represents a status in which theterminal 10 has exited from the conference. The exit status “exit”indicates a status in which the terminal 10 has normally exited from theconference. The exit status “forced termination” indicates a status inwhich the terminal 10 has forcibly been terminated due to power off. Theexit status “conference in progress” indicates a status in which theterminal 10 is currently attending the conference.

Note that the above-described attributes and the exit statuses of theattendee history management table (t1) are only examples, and mayinclude other data items and values.

Next, the conference history management table (t2) is, as illustrated inFIG. 10B, configured to include attributes including a conference ID, anorganizer terminal ID, start date and time, end date and time, andconference hours. Among these attributes, the attribute “conference ID”represents identification (ID) for specifically identifying aconference. The attribute “organizer terminal ID” representsidentification (ID) for specifically identifying a terminal serving asan organizer of the conference. For example, the organizer of theconference represents an organizer of a conference which three attendeesare expected to attend. One of the attendees may attend or exit from theconference immediately after the conference has started. The aboveattendee's attending or exiting from the conference is indicated in theattendee history management table (t1).

Further, the attribute “start date and time” represents date and time atwhich an entire conference has started. The attribute status “end dateand time” represents date and time at which the entire conference hasended. The attribute status “conference hours” represents a period oftime (hours) in which the entire conference has been held.

Note that the above-described attributes of the conference historymanagement table (t2) are only examples, and may include other dataitems and values.

Further, in the present embodiment, one of the process history storageparts 547 may store the above-described two tables (t1 and t2). However,the present embodiment is not limited to such a configuration, and adatabase (DB) may be constructed corresponding to each of the two tables(t1 and t2).

Next, referring back to FIG. 7, the raw history storage part 548 storesthe raw history information stored in the temporary storage part 529 asit is for a long-term storage as master data. Hence, the raw historyinformation stored as the master data may be able to use when anyfailure has occurred in the transmission system 1.

When the raw history information has deficiency (e) due to missinginformation of the predetermined item of the raw history information,and the process part 549 fails to perform process on the raw historyinformation, the deficiency raw history storage part 549 stores the rawhistory information having the deficiency (e).

Terminal Setting Utility Server

Next, a description is given of featured functions of the terminalsetting utility server 550. The terminal setting utility server 550represents a server that receives an acquisition request for acquiringthe process history information from the acquisition request sourceterminal and transmits the process history information to the terminal10. The terminal setting utility server 550 is configured to include atransmitting-receiving part 551, and an auxiliary function part 552.

The transmitting-receiving part 551 is a function or a unit that may beimplemented by instructions from the CPU 201, and the network I/F 209illustrated in FIG. 5. The transmitting-receiving part 551 serves as aninterface for receiving an acquisition request for acquiring the processhistory information from the acquisition request source terminal andtransmitting the process history information to the acquisition requestsource terminal. The auxiliary function part 552 is a function or a unitthat may be implemented by instructions from the CPU 201 illustrated inFIG. 5. The auxiliary function part 552 is configured to execute varioustypes of auxiliary functions excluding functions such as the acquisitionof the raw history data or communications control.

Charge History Creating Server

Next, a description is given of featured functions of the charge historycreating server 560. The charge history creating server 560 isconfigured to create a charge history for charging a user a usage feefor his/her using the transmission system 1. The charge history creatingserver 560 is configured to include a transmitting-receiving part 561,and a charge history creating part 562.

The transmitting-receiving part 561 is a function or a unit that may beimplemented by instructions from the CPU 201, and the network I/F 209illustrated in FIG. 5. The transmitting-receiving part 561 is configuredto request the history management server 540 to acquire attending hoursinformation (pi) and conversation quality information (si) via the LAN590. The attending hours information (pi) indicates the “attendinghours” in a predetermined period indicated by the “attending date andtime” and the “exit date and time” (e.g., a period from Sep. 1, 2010 toSep. 30, 2010). The conversation quality information (si) indicates the“conversation quality”.

Further, the transmitting-receiving part 561 is configured to acquiredesired attending hours information (pi) and conversation qualityinformation (si) from the history management server 540. In addition,the transmitting-receiving part 561 is configured to transmitlater-described charge history information (i) created by the chargehistory creating part 562 to the file transfer server 570.

The charge history creating part 562 is a function or a unit that may beimplemented by instructions from the CPU 201 illustrated in FIG. 5. Thecharge history creating part 562 is configured to create charge historyinformation (i) formed of a comma separated values (CSV) file based onthe attending hours information (pi), and the conversation qualityinformation (si) acquired by the transmitting-receiving part 561.

File Transfer Server

Next, a description is given of featured functions of the file transferserver 570. The file transfer server 570 is connected to alater-described file transfer server 610 in the fee management system 60via the dedicated line 2 x. Hence, the transmission management system 50may be able to transfer an electronic file to the fee management system60 via the dedicated line 2 x without passing through the Internet 2 i,which may prevent fees from being tampered with.

The file transfer server 570 is configured to include atransmitting-receiving part 571, and a communications controller 572.The transmitting-receiving part 571 is a function or a unit that may beimplemented by instructions from the CPU 201, and the network I/F 209illustrated in FIG. 5. The transmitting-receiving part 571 is configuredto receive the charge history information (i) including the attendinghours information (pi) and the conversation quality information (si)transmitted from the charge history creating server 560, and transferthe charge history information (i) to the later-described file transferserver 610 in the fee management system 60 via the dedicated line 2 x.Further, the communications controller 572 is a function or a unit thatmay be implemented by instructions from the CPU 201 illustrated in FIG.5, and configured to control information (data) transmission andreception of the transmitting-receiving part 571.

Fee Management System

FIG. 11 is a functional block diagram illustrating a fee managementsystem 60 of an embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 11, the feemanagement system 60 includes the file transfer server 610, and the feecomputing server 620. The above-described servers are connected to eachother via the LAN 690 such that the servers communicate with each otherwhile the servers are connected to the Internet 2 i via the LAN 690.Further, the file transfer server 610 is also connected to the dedicatedline 2 x. Note that each of the servers forming the fee managementsystem 60 has a similar hardware configuration as that of thetransmission management system 50, and hence, the description of thehardware configurations of the servers is omitted from thespecification.

File Transfer Server

Next, a description is given of featured functions of the file transferserver 610. The file transfer server 610 is connected to the filetransfer server 570 in the transmission management system 50 via thededicated line 2 x. Hence, the fee management system 60 may be able toreceive an electronic file from the transmission management system 50via the dedicated line 2 x without being passed through the Internet 2i.

The file transfer server 610 is configured to include atransmitting-receiving part 612, and a communications controller 611.The transmitting-receiving part 612 is a function or a unit that may beimplemented by instructions from the CPU 201, and the network I/F 209illustrated in FIG. 5. The transmitting-receiving part 612 is configuredto receive the charge history information (i) transmitted as anelectronic file from the file transfer server 570 of the transmissionmanagement system 50 via the dedicated line 2 x, and transfer the chargehistory information (i) to the fee computing server 620 via the LAN 690.Further, the communications controller 611 is a function or a unit thatmay be implemented by instructions from the CPU 201 illustrated in FIG.5, and configured to control information (data) transmission andreception of the transmitting-receiving part 612.

Fee Computing Server

Next, a description is given of featured functions of the fee computingserver 620. The fee computing server 620 is configured to include atransmitting-receiving part 621, a computing part 622, a charge part623, and a user management part 629.

The user management part 629 is composed of the HD 204 and the HDD 205illustrated in FIG. 5. The user management part 629 is formed of a usermanagement table (Ty). The user management table (Ty) is configured toinclude attributes (fields) including a contract number of a user, auser ID, a user name, a user address, a user phone number, a user emailaddress, and a terminal ID that are associated with one another asillustrated in FIG. 12. Note that the contract number of the user, theuser ID, the user name, the user address, the user phone number, and theuser email address may be used alone or a combination of two or more asuser identification information for identifying the user.

The attribute “contract number” is an identification number of acontract when the contract is exchanged between the administrator of thetransmission system 1 and each of the users in order for each user touse the transmission system 1.

The attribute “user ID” represents user identification informationcomposed of an identifier and the like for specifically identifying auser.

The attribute “user name” represents information indicating a title or aname of a user. The attribute “user address” represents informationindicating an address or a residence of a user, an example of which maybe an installation site of the terminal 20.

The attribute “user phone number” represents information indicating aphone number of a user. The attribute “user mail address” representsinformation indicating an electronic mail address of the terminal 20.

The attribute “terminal ID” is an example of terminal identificationinformation, which represents information indicating terminalidentification (ID) of all the terminals 10 held by the user forspecifically identifying a terminal attending the conference as anexample of terminal identification information. For example, the userhaving the user ID “a123” has the terminals 10 represented by theterminal IDs “11001”, “11002”, “11003”, and the like.

Further, the transmitting-receiving part 621 is a function or a unitthat may be implemented by instructions from the CPU 201, and thenetwork I/F 209 illustrated in FIG. 5. The transmitting-receiving part621 is configured to transmit to or receive from other terminals orsystems various types of data (or information) via the Internet 2 i andthe communications network 2.

The computing part 622 is a function or a unit that may be implementedby instructions from the CPU 201, and the network I/F 209 illustrated inFIG. 5. The computing part 622 is configured to compute a totalattending fee for each of the users based on the charge historyinformation (i) transferred from the file transfer server 610. Further,the computing part 622 is configured to include an attending hourscomputing part 622 a, a conversation quality computing part 622 b, anattending fee computing part 622 c, and an attending fee summing part622 d.

The attending hours computing part 622 a is configured to refer to theattending history management table (t1) (see FIG. 10A) stored in theprocess history storage part 547 of the transmission management system50, and compute a total attending hours for each of the terminals 10within a predetermined period by summing up the attending hours valuesrepresented by the “attending hours” of a corresponding one of theterminal IDs within the predetermined period.

For example, in FIG. 10A, the terminal ID “110001” is managed by thehistory IDs “001”, and “005” within a predetermined period (e.g., awhole month of September, 2010) illustrated in FIG. 15A. Hence, thetotal attending hours of the terminal 10 represented by the terminal ID“110001” may be computed by summing the attending hours “1 hr 30 min 25s (01:30:25)”, “1 hr 10 min 10 s (01:10:10)”, and the like,respectively.

Further, the conversation quality computing part 622 b is configured torefer to the attending history management table (t1) (see FIG. 10A)stored in the process history storage part 547 of the transmissionmanagement system 50, and acquire a conversation quality value for eachof the terminals 10 within a predetermined period. The conversationquality computing part 622 b is configured to further compute theaverage of the conversation quality values per unit time as an averageconversation quality per unit time within the predetermined period. Notethat the unit time is determined as “minute”.

For example, in FIG. 10A, the terminal ID “110001” is managed by thehistory IDs “001”, and “005” within a predetermined period (e.g., awhole month of September, 2010) illustrated in FIG. 15A. Among these,the conversation quality and the attending hours corresponding to thehistory ID “001” are “100” and “1 hr 30 min 25 s (01:30:25)”(approximately 90 m), respectively. Similarly, the conversation qualityand the attending hours corresponding to the history ID “005” are “100”and “1 hr 10 min 10 s (01:10:10)” (approximately 70 m), respectively. Inthis case, the average conversation quality value per unit time iscomputed as {(90×100)+(70×80)}/(90+70)=91.25.

Further, the attending fee computing part 622 c is configured to computean attending fee for each of the terminals 10 within the predeterminedperiod based on the total attending hours computed by the attendinghours computing part 622 a and the average conversation quality per unittime computed by the conversation quality computing part 622 b.

For example, there is a case where the administrator determines anattending fee per minute being ten yen in advance. In this case, whenthe total attending hours of any one of the terminals 10 computed by theattending hours computing part 622 a is 160 min, and the averageconversation quality per unit time is 91, the attending fee may becomputed as follows: 10×160×0.91=1456 yen. Note that the conversationquality in this embodiment is evaluated by the scores from 0 to 100.Hence, when the average conversation quality value per unit time is 91,the ratio coefficient 0.91 is

multiplier. When the average conversation quality value per unit time is100, the ratio coefficient 1 is a multiplier.

Further, the attending fee summing part 622 d refers to the usermanagement table (Ty) (see FIG. 12) managed by the user management part629, and computes a total attending fee for each of the users by summingthe attending fees (computed by the attending fee computing part 622 c)of the terminals 10 represented by a corresponding one of the user IDsserving as charging destinations of the attending fees.

For example, as in FIG. 12, the user having the user ID “a123” has theterminals represented by the terminal IDs “11001”, “11002”, “11003”, andthe like. Hence, the total attending fee for the user having the user ID“a123” may be computed by summing up the attending fees of therespective terminals 10 represented by the terminal IDs “11001”,“11002”, “11003”, and the like computed by the attending fee computingpart 622 c.

Next, the charge part 623 is a function or a unit that may beimplemented by instructions from the CPU 201, and the network I/F 209illustrated in FIG. 5. The charge part 623 is configured to refer to theuser management table (Ty) illustrated in FIG. 12, and transmitattending fee charging information via electronic mail to a user mailaddress serving as an attending fee reporting destination from thetransmitting-receiving part 621 via the communications network 2. Theattending fee charging information includes a total attending fee of allthe terminals 10 held by the respective users within a predeterminedperiod, attending year, date, and time, the person who charges the feesuch as an administrator, a method of payment, an account number intowhich the attending fee is to be transferred, and the like.

Processes and Operations of Embodiment

Next, a description is given of a process in the transmission system 1according to the embodiment by referring to FIGS. 1, 7, and 13. FIG. 13is a flowchart illustrating a process performed by the transmissionmanagement system in which raw history information is processed tocreate process history information.

In FIG. 1, each of the terminals 10 is configured to transmit rawhistory information indicating a history associating with acommunication status to the transmission management system 50 when thecommunication status is changed. Further, in FIG. 7, the communicationsmanagement server 510 of the transmission management system 50 isconfigured to receive the raw history information transmitted from eachof the terminals 10 and store the received raw history information inthe temporary storage server 520. The transmitting-receiving part 521 ofthe temporary storage server 520 is configured to receive each of theraw history information sets transmitted from the communicationsmanagement server 510. The temporary storage part 529 is configured tostore the raw history information received by the transmitting-receivingpart 521. With this configuration, the temporary storage part 529 isconfigured to sequentially store the raw history information. In theabove configuration, a description is given, with reference to FIG. 13,of a process performed by the transmission management system in whichthe raw history information is processed to create process historyinformation. Note that the temporary storage server 520 may beconfigured to directly receive the raw history information from each ofthe terminals 10.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating a process performed by thetransmission management system in which raw history information isprocessed to create process history information.

Initially, the process part 532 of the process server 530 determineswhether raw history information is stored in the temporary storage part529 via the LAN 590 (step S1). Subsequently, when the process part 532determines that the raw history information is NOT stored in thetemporary storage part 529 (“NO” in step S1), the process part 532repeatedly performs the process in step S1.

Next, the process part 532 retrieves the raw history information fromthe temporary storage part 529 via the LAN 590 (step S2).

Subsequently, the process part 532 determines whether the process part532 is able to communicate with the raw history storage part 548 (stepS3). When the process part 532 determines that the process part 532 isunable to communicate with the raw history storage part 548 (“NO” instep S3), the process part 532 returns the raw history information tothe temporary storage part 529 via the LAN 590 (step S4). On the otherhand, when the process part 532 determines that the process part 540 isable to communicate with the raw history storage part 548 (“YES” in stepS3), the process part 532 stores the raw history information as masterdata in the raw history storage part 548 of the history managementserver 540 via the LAN 590 (step S5).

Next, the process part 532 searches the process rule management table(T) for the raw history information retrieved in step S2 as a search keyto extract process information corresponding to the retrieved rawhistory information, and creates process history information indicatinga post-process history by carrying out a predetermined process on theraw history information based on the extracted process information (stepS6). Note that in step S6, the predetermined process is not carried outon the raw history information having the communications statusillustrated in FIG. 9 being “online” or “accept”. This is because theprocess rule management table (T) illustrated in FIG. 8 does not includethe communications status “online” or “accept” as the process startrequirement. Further, the raw history information may include deficiency(e). In such a case, the raw history information does not appear to beprocessed normally by the process part 532.

Subsequently, the process part 532 determines whether the process part532 has successfully carried out the process on the raw historyinformation based on the process contents in step S6 (step S7).Subsequently, when the process part 532 determines that the process part532 has failed to carry out the process on the raw history information(“NO” in step S7), the process part 532 further determines whether thereason for failing to carry out the process is failure to communicatewith the process rule management part 539 (step S8).

Subsequently, when the process part 532 determines that the process part532 is unable to communicate with the process rule management part 539(“YES” in step S8), the process part 532 returns the raw historyinformation to the temporary storage part 529 via the LAN 590 (step S4).On the other hand, when the process part 532 determines that the processpart 540 is able to communicate with the process rule management part539 (“NO” in step S8), the process part 532 stores the raw historyinformation having the deficiency (e) in the deficiency raw historystorage part 549 of the history management server 540 via the LAN 590(step S9). Hence, the administrator of the transmission system 1 may beable to consider possible solutions by analyzing the raw historyinformation having the deficiency (e).

Note that the process part 532 returns the raw history information tothe temporary storage part 529 for the following reason. Even when theprocess server 530 is unable to communicate with a process recordmanagement part (DB), this communications failure may be considered astemporary database failure unlike failure in a communications networksuch as LAN. Hence, the raw history information may be stored in thetemporary storage part 529 after the process record management part (DB)is restored. Thus, with the above configuration, since the raw historyinformation is subject to processing again, the raw history informationhaving no deficiency (e) may be prevented from failing to be processed.

Further, the process part 532 stores the raw history information in thedeficiency raw history storage part 549 when access to the process rulemanagement part 539 always results in errors; for example, when the rawhistory information has missing information that is necessary for theraw history information. In such a case, the raw history informationhaving deficiency (e) is configured to be stored as an error log in thedeficiency raw history storage part 549 instead of returning the rawhistory information to the temporary storage part 529.

Further, the administrator of the transmission system 1 may be informedof occurrence of the deficiency (e) via electronic mail or the like,instead of, or in combination with returning the raw history informationto the temporary storage part 529, or storing the raw historyinformation in the deficiency raw history storage part 549. Hence, theadministrator may be able to immediately detect or acknowledge theoccurrence of the deficiency (e).

Next, returning back to step S7, when the process part 532 determinesthat the process part 532 successfully carries out the process on theraw history information (“YES” in step S7), the process part 532 furtherdetermines whether the process part 532 is able to communicate with theprocess history storage part 547 (step S10). Then, when the process part532 determines that the process part 532 is unable to communicate withthe process history storage part 547 (“NO” in step S10), the processpart 532 returns the raw history information to the temporary storagepart 529 via the LAN 590 (step S4). On the other hand, when the processpart 532 determines that the process part 540 is able to communicatewith the process history storage part 547 (“YES” in step S10), theprocess part 532 stores the process history information processed instep S6 in the process history storage part 547 of the historymanagement server 540 via the LAN 590 (step S11).

Next, after the processes performed in steps S9 and S11, the processpart 532 completely deletes the raw history information retrieved instep S2 from the temporary storage part 529 of the temporary storageserver 520 via the LAN 590 (step S12).

Next, after the processes performed in steps S12 and S4, the processpart 532 returns to the process in step S1 to proceed with performingprocesses subsequent to the process in step S1 on the next raw historyinformation sequentially stored in the temporary storage part 529.

Next, a description is given of a process in which the transmissionmanagement system 50 provides the acquisition requested process historyinformation with the acquisition request source terminal when the userterminal 10 requests the transmission management system 50 to acquireprocess history information, with reference to FIGS. 7, 14 to 16.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating a process from receiving anacquisition request for acquiring process history information from auser of the terminal to providing the user with the process historyinformation. FIG. 15A is a diagram illustrating an acquisition targetperiod of the process history information. FIG. 15B is a diagramillustrating search requirements for searching for raw historyinformation. FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screendisplayed on a display of an external input apparatus.

Initially, the transmitting-receiving part 551 of the terminal settingutility server 550 illustrated in FIG. 7 receives from the acquisitionrequest source terminal an acquisition request indicating a request foracquiring process history information relating to the communications inthe acquisition request source terminal via the communications network 2(step S21). The acquisition request includes a terminal ID of theacquisition request source terminal, and the acquisition target periodof the process history information (e.g., day, week, month, and year) assearch keys (search parameters).

In response to the acquisition request, the search part 542 of thehistory information management server 540 searches the process historystorage part 547 for the process history information corresponding tothe acquisition request extracting the corresponding process historyinformation (step S22). Specifically, the search part 542 initiallycomputes an acquisition target range (from_date, to_date) from theacquisition target period. For example, when the acquisition targetperiod is “2010-09”, the acquisition target range is from 0 am, Sep. 1,2010 to 12 pm, Sep. 30, 2010 (i.e., 0 am, Oct. 1, 2010). Hence, theacquisition target range is “from_date”=2010-09-01 00:00:00,“to_date”=2010-10-01 00:00:00. Next, the search part 542 searches theattendee history management table (t1) for process history information(i1) corresponding to the terminal ID, “from_date”, and “to_date” basedon the search requirements (A, B, C, and D) illustrated in FIG. 15B toextract the corresponding process history information (i1). Next, thesearch part 542 searches the conference history management table (t2)for process history information (i2) corresponding to a conference ID inthe extracted process history information (i1) as a search key toextract the corresponding process history information (i2).Subsequently, the search part 542 merges the extracted process historyinformation (i1) and the process history information (i2) to createprocess history information (I) to provide the request source terminalwith the created process history (I). Further, when there are two ormore sets of process history information (I), the search part 542 mergesthe two or more sets of process history information (I) to create aprocess history information group (IG).

In the following, a description is given of a search method employed inthe above search requirements (A, B, C, and D). The present embodimentenables the transmission management system 50 to carry out a process toprovide history information even when a range from the attending date tothe exit date may be several months. For example, when there is historyinformation indicating that the user terminal 10 attended a conferenceon “2010-08-30” (Aug. 30, 2010) and exited the conference on“2010-10-01” (Oct. 1, 2010), the transmission management system 50 maycarry out a process to provide process history information of any ofmonths including August, September, and October. That is, the terminalIDs each having a period from the attending date to the exit date thatmatches the period from “from_date” to “to_date” may be extractingtargets among the terminal IDs. In FIG. 15A, all the raw historyinformation sets L1 to L6 may be extracting targets. More specifically,the extracting targets may be classified by four cases corresponding tothe search requirements (A, B, C, and D) illustrated in FIG. 15B. Withthe above-described classification of the target requirements, thesearch range may be limited by each of the search requirements.Thereafter, desired raw history information may be extracted in a fewersearch hours by integrating the search requirements with logical “OR”.Note that the search requirements illustrated in FIG. 15B represent thefollowing cases.

(1) Search requirement A: a case where the attending date of theconference falls within the acquisition target month.The search range of the attending dates may be limited to theacquisition request target month.(2) Search requirement B: a case where the exit date of the conferencefalls within the acquisition target month.The search range of the exit dates may be limited to the acquisitionrequest target month.(3) Search requirement C: a case where the user terminal 10 attends theconference before the acquisition request target month, and is stillattending the conference.The search range of the exit dates may be limited to “the conference inprogress”. Further, only one raw history information indicating the“conference in progress” may be included in the specific terminal 10unless the terminal 10 attends another conference differing from thecurrently attended conference.(4) Search requirement D: a case where the period from the attendingdate to the exit date includes several months.The raw history information to be searched for may be limited based onthe requirement indicating the “attending hours being(to_date-from_date) or above” (i.e., one month or above in this case).

Note that this embodiment illustrates an example in which the rawhistory information may be extracted when the acquisition request targetperiod is monthly (e.g., “2010-09”). However, the raw historyinformation may be extracted by the same search method when theacquisition request target period is daily period (e.g., “2010-09”),yearly (e.g., “2010”), or any specified period (e.g., “2010-09 00:00:00”to “2010-09 12:00:00:00”). Further, FIG. 15B illustrates an example inwhich raw history information is searched for by a terminal ID of acertain acquisition request source terminal. However, the raw historyinformation may be searched for by terminal IDs of two or moreacquisition request source terminals. Alternatively, the raw historyinformation may be searched for by parameters other than the terminal IDof the acquisition request source terminal or the acquisition targetperiod.

Next, illustration is given of a case where the transmission managementsystem 50 provides the acquisition request source terminal with aprocess history information group (IG).

Subsequently, the deficiency history excluding part 543 determineswhether the process history information group (IG) includes processhistory information (I) having deficiency (E) (step S23). In step S23,the deficiency history excluding part 543 determines that the processhistory information group (IG) includes the process history information(I) having deficiency (E) (“YES” in step S23), and the deficiencyhistory excluding part 543 excludes the process history information (I)having the deficiency (E) alone (step S24). Hence, the transmissionmanagement system 50 may be able to prevent the acquisition requestsource terminal from being provided with the process history informationhaving deficiency.

Note that in the present embodiment, the raw history information istransmitted from each of the user terminals 10 in the order ofcommunications statuses “invite”, “start”, “join”, “leave”, and “end”.Hence, the deficiency history excluding part 543 refers to items of the“organizer terminal ID”, “start date and time”, “attending date andtime”, “exit date and time”, and “end date and time” equating with thecommunications statuses in a reverse order of a transmitting order ofthese items. Then, when there is an item having no communications statusbefore the item having the communications status, the deficiency historyexcluding part 543 determines that the process history informationincludes deficiency (E). The rule indicating the above-describeddetermination may be represented by an electronic file managed outsidethe deficiency history excluding part 543.

Next, after step S24 or when the deficiency history excluding part 543determines that there is no deficiency in step S23 (“NO” in step S23),the transmitting-receiving part 541 of the history management server 540transmits the process history information group (IG) to the terminalsetting utility server 550, and the transmitting-receiving part 551 ofthe terminal setting utility server 550 transmits the received processhistory information group (IG) to the acquisition request sourceterminal (step S25).

On the other hand, with respect to the above step S25, a browserfunction of the external input apparatus 40 displays a “communicationsterminal setting utility” screen 1000 illustrated in FIG. 16 on thedisplay 208 of the external input apparatus 40 connected to theacquisition request source terminal. The communications terminal settingutility screen 1001 displays the terminal ID 110001 of the user terminal10, the period 1002 of the history relating to the communicationsindicated in the process history information, an acquisition targetperiod switching menu 1003 of the acquisition requested process historyinformation, the process history information group (IG) 1004, and thelike.

Specifically, in an example of the screen illustrated in FIG. 16, theexternal input apparatus 40 logs into the terminal setting utilityserver 550 with the terminal ID of the acquisition request sourceterminal is “110001”. When the user requests acquiring the processhistory information, the user selects “September, 2010” from theacquisition target period switching menu 1003. Hence, the external inputapparatus 40 causes the acquisition request source terminal to requestthe transmission management system 50 to acquire the process historyinformation based on the requirement of the terminal ID “1100001”, andthe acquisition target period “2010-09”. Accordingly, the external inputapparatus 40 causes the display 208 of the external input apparatus 40to display the screen 1001 illustrated in FIG. 16 based on the processhistory information group (IG) transmitted from the transmissionmanagement system 50 via the request source terminal.

Further, the acquisition of the process history information may berequested based on the changed acquisition target period every time theacquisition target period switching menu 1003 is selectively switched,or every time one of triangular buttons displayed on the opposite sidesof the acquisition target period switching menu 1003 is pressed.

Note that when the conference history relating to the process historyinformation is recorded over several months, the conference history isdisplayed as follows. The following three cases are illustrated when theattending date and time are “2010-08/30 22:00:00” (Aug. 30, 2010), andthe exit date and time are “2010-10-01 10:00:00” (Oct. 1, 2010).

(1) A case where the communications histories are displayed as they are.(1-1) the communications history in August is displayed as the attendingdate and time “2010-08-30 22:00:00”, and the exit date and time“2010-10-01 10:00:00”.(1-2) the communications history in September is displayed as theattending date and time “2010-08-30 22:00:00”, and the exit date andtime “2010-10-01 10:00:00”.(1-3) the communications history in October is displayed as theattending date and time “2010-08-30 22:00:00”, and the exit date andtime “2010-10-01 10:00:00”.(2) A case where all the attending dates and times and the exit datesand times are displayed, but those at the boundary between the twomonths are trimmed (deleted). Note that the trimming process may becarried out by the auxiliary function part 552 of the terminal settingutility server 550, or the search part 542 of the history managementserver 540.(2-1) the communication history in August is displayed as the attendingdate and time “2010-08-30 22:00:00”, and the exit date and time“2010-08-31 23:59:59”.(2-2) the communication history in August is displayed as the attendingdate and time “2010-09-01 00:00:00”, and the exit date and time“2010-09-30 23:59:59”.(2-3) the communication history in October is displayed as the attendingdate and time “2010-10-01 00:00:00”, and the exit date and time“2010-10-01 10:00:00”.(3) A case where the attending dates and times and the exit dates andtimes bridging the two months are trimmed such that the attending datesand times and the exit dates and times are not displayed (i.e., theattending dates and times and the exit dates and times at the boundarybetween the two months are displayed as “<--”, “-->”).Note that the trimming process may be carried out by the auxiliaryfunction part 552 of the terminal setting utility server 550, or thesearch part 542 of the history management server 540.(3-1) the communication history in August is displayed as the attendingdate and time “2010-08-30 22:00:00”, and the exit date and time “-->”.(3-2) the communication history in September is displayed as theattending date and time “<--”, and the exit date and time “-->”.(3-3) the communication history in October is displayed as the attendingdate and time “2010-08-30 22:00:00”, and the exit date and time“2010-10-01 10:00:00”.

Since the communication log transmission side does not have to wait forthe end of a log forming process by receiving the transmission of thecommunication log as a message queue (messaging system of asynchronouscommunications), the primary process including the communication controlwill not be adversely affected.

Next, a description is given, with reference to FIGS. 11, 17 and 18, ofa process in which the administrator of the transmission managementsystem 1 charges the users of the transmission management system 1 theattending fee resulting from the user attending the teleconference. FIG.17 is a sequence diagram illustrating a fee charge method. FIG. 18 is aschematic diagram illustrating a summary of attending fees.

Note that the user (or user unit) in FIG. 18 does not indicate a unitper user of the terminal 10 but indicates a unit per user who pays theattending fee. The example in FIG. 1 assumes a case in which the fouroffices of a Tokyo office, an Osaka office, a New York office, and aWashington, D.C. office separately pay the attending fees.

Initially, the transmission management system 50 transmits each terminalID and corresponding charge history information (i) to the feemanagement system 60 via the dedicated line 2 x(step S31). Then, the feemanagement system 60 receives the charge history information (i) foreach of the terminals 10. Specifically, in the fee computing server 620of the fee management system 60, the transmitting-receiving part 621receives each of the terminal IDs and corresponding charge historyinformation (i) from the process history storage part 547 of the historyinformation management server 540 in the transmission management system50 via the transmitting-receiving part 541, the LAN 590, thetransmitting-receiving part 571, the dedicated line 2 x, thetransmitting-receiving part 612, the LAN 690, and thetransmitting-receiving part 621 in sequence. Note that the feemanagement system 60 side may request the transmission management system50 to transmit the charge history information (i), or the transmissionmanagement system 50 may regularly (e.g., the first of each month)transmit the charge history information (i) to the fee management system60. Note that as described above, the charge history information (i)includes attending hours information (pi) and conversation qualityinformation (si).

Subsequently, the attending hours computing part 622 a sums up each ofthe attending hours values represented by the “attending hours” of acorresponding one of terminal IDs based on the attending hoursinformation (pi) of a predetermined period (e.g., one day period)acquired from the history information management server 540 to computetotal attending hours for each of the terminals 10 within thepredetermined period (step S32).

Then, the conversation quality computing part 622 b acquires each of theconversation quality values represented by the “conversation quality” ofa corresponding one of terminal IDs based on the conversation qualityinformation (si) of a predetermined period (e.g., one day period)acquired from the history information management server 540. Theconversation quality computing part 622 b then computes the average ofthe conversation quality values per unit time as an average conversationquality per unit time within the predetermined period (step S33).

Next, the attending fee computing part 622 c computes an attending feefor each of the terminals 10 within the predetermined period based onthe total attending hours computed in step S32 and the averageconversation quality per unit time computed in step S33 (step S34).

For example, there is a case where the administrator determines anattending fee per minute being ten yen in advance. In this case, whenthe total attending hours of any one of the terminals 10 computed by theattending hours computing part 622 a is 160 min, and the averageconversation quality per unit time is 91, the attending fee may becomputed as follows: 10×160×0.91=1456 yen.

Subsequently, the attending fee summing part 622 d of the computing part622 refers to the user management table (Ty) (see FIG. 12) managed bythe user management part 629, and computes a total attending fee foreach of the users by summing the attending fees (computed in step S34)of the terminals 10 represented by a corresponding one of the user IDsserving as charging destinations of the attending fees (step S35).

For example, in FIG. 12, the terminal IDs corresponding to the user ID“a123” are “11001”, “11002”, “11003”, and the like. Hence, the totalattending fee of the user represented by the user ID “a123” may becomputed by summing the attending fees of the terminals 10 representedby “11001”, “11002”, “11003”, and the like computed in step S32.

Thus, the fee management system 60 may be able to compute the totalattending fee for each of the users as illustrated in FIG. 18.

Next, the charge part 623 of the fee management system 60 refers to theuser management table (Ty) illustrated in FIG. 12, and transmits theattending fee charging information via electronic mail to the userterminal 20 having the user mail address serving as an attending feereporting destination (step S36). The attending fee charging informationincludes the total attending fee for each of the users illustrated inFIG. 18 such that each user may be able to acknowledge the totalattending fee that he or she is obliged to pay.

Main Effects of Embodiments

As described above, the embodiments of the present invention may computethe total attending fee for each of the users attending the conversation(conference) based on the total attending hours and the conversationquality. Hence, the administrator of the transmission system 1 may beable to charge the attending fee by hours of the user attending theconversation in the conference and by conversation quality while theuser having conversations (communication) in conference. Accordingly,the embodiments of the present invention may be able to provideadvantageous effects of charging the users the fees in a fair manner.

Note that the conversation quality may be greatly affected by thenetwork circuitry quality. The degradation of the network circuitry mayresult in sound interruption, image skipping, or the like. However, theconversation quality is not limited to that determined based on thenetwork circuitry quality alone. That is, the conversation qualityindicates the quality of the conversation that the user has eventuallyreceived via the terminal 10 side regardless of the causes of theconversation quality degradation. Hence, when the conversation qualityis degraded (low) due to the delay or the deficiency of the variousservers managed by the administrator, the attending fee to be charged isdetermined based on such low quality conversation quality. In thismethod, the fees may be charged in a fairer manner between users.

Further, the transmission management system 50 creates the processhistory information and stores the created process history informationprior to receiving from each of the terminals 10 the acquisition requestfor acquiring the process history information relating to thecommunications in the corresponding terminal 10. Hence, the transmissionmanagement system 50 may be able to rapidly provide the acquisitionrequest source terminal 10 with the process history information whenreceiving the acquisition request for acquiring the process historyinformation from each of the terminals 10.

Moreover, the conversation session seim may be continued by bridging thetwo months (e.g., bridging August and September, or bridging Septemberand October). In such a case, even if the process history information ofSeptember alone is requested by the user, the transmission managementsystem 50 may be unable to acquire the raw history information havingthe communication status being “join” or “leave” within September bysearching for the raw history information having such a communicationstatus being “join” or “leave” within September alone. Hence, thetransmission management system 50 initially searches for the raw historyinformation sets having the communication status being “join” indicatingthat the communications have been initiated before September, andfurther specifies one of the raw history information sets based on apredetermined conference ID(x). Subsequently, the transmissionmanagement system 50 initially searches for the raw history informationsets having the communication status being “leave” indicating that thecommunications have been finished before September, and furtherspecifies one of the raw history information sets based on a conferenceID identical to the above-described predetermined conference ID(x).Accordingly, the transmission management system 50 may need a long timeto search for the corresponding raw history information to createprocess history information. However, in this embodiment, the searchtime may be reduced by employing the search method illustrated in FIGS.15A and 15B, and hence, the process history information may be createdrapidly.

Other Embodiments

The process part 532 may add a “deficiency flag” to the attributes ofthe attendee history management table (t1) illustrated in FIG. 10A tocreate an attendee history management table (t11) illustrated in FIG.19A. Likewise, the process part 532 may add a “deficiency flag” to theattributes of the conference history management table (t2) illustratedin FIG. 10B to create a conference history management table (t12)illustrated in FIG. 19B. In such a case, the deficiency historyexcluding part 543 illustrated in FIG. 7 may determine whether there isdeficiency (E) in the process history information stored in the processhistory storage part 547 prior to receiving the acquisition request foracquiring process history information from the terminal 10. When thedeficiency history excluding part 543 determines that there is nodeficiency (E) in the process history information, the deficiencyhistory excluding part 543 inputs “0” as search result information tothe attribute of the “deficiency flag” of each record illustrated inFIGS. 19A and 19B. On the other hand, when the deficiency historyexcluding part 543 determines that there is deficiency (E) in theprocess history information, the deficiency history excluding part 543inputs “1” as the search result information into the attribute of the“deficiency flag”. Accordingly, the communication management server 510may be able to receive the process history information sets from thehistory management server 540 by excluding the process historyinformation having the “deficiency flag” being “1”. Further, it may beunnecessary for the deficiency history excluding part 543 to determinewhether there is deficiency in the process history information afterreceiving the acquisition request for acquiring the process historyinformation from the acquisition request source terminal. Hence, theacquisition request source terminal may be able to acquire the processhistory information rapidly. Note that in the above example, “0”indicates normal, and “1” indicates deficiency (abnormal); however, thenormal and deficiency may be indicated by any representations such as“true” and “false”, or “normal” and “deficiency” insofar as whether theprocess history information includes deficiency or not is clarified bysuch representations.

Further, the history information management server 540 may include aplurality of combinations each including the temporary storage part 529,the process part 532, and the process history storage part 547illustrated in FIG. 7, and plural types of process history informationmay be created from one raw history information set by sequentiallytransferring the raw history information, the process historyinformation, and the like with a message relay to various temporarystorage parts 529.

Further, in the transmission management system 50, the communicationmanagement server 510, the temporary storage server 520, the pluralprocess servers 530, the history management server 540, and the terminalsetting utility server 550 are illustrated as separate servers; however,the transmission management system 50 is not limited to theconfiguration having the separate servers. The transmission managementsystem 50 may include any one or more integrated functions of the aboveservers.

Further, each of the relay device 30, the external input apparatus 40,the transmission management system 50, the fee management system 60, theprogram providing system 90, and the maintenance system 100 may becomposed of a single computer, or plural computers to which anyfunctions of the above components are allocated. Further, when theprogram providing system 90 is composed of a single computer, theprogram transmitted by the program providing system 90 may betransmitted by being divided into plural modules or without beingdivided. In addition, when the program providing system 90 is composedof plural computers, the divided modules of the program may betransmitted from separate computers.

Moreover, a recording medium integrally storing or different recordingmedia separately storing respective programs of the relay device 30, theexternal input apparatus 40, the transmission management system 50, thefee management system 60, the program providing system 90, and themaintenance system 100; the hard disk (HD) 204 integrally storing orseparately storing the respective programs; and the program providingsystem 90 having the HD 204 may be used when domestically orinternationally providing the users with the programs as a programproduct.

Further, an example of the transmission system 1 is illustrated as ateleconference system in the above embodiments. However, the example ofthe transmission system 1 is not limited to the teleconference system,and may be a telephone system such as an internet protocol (IP) phone oran Internet phone. Alternatively, the transmission system 1 may be a carnavigation system. In such a case, one of terminals 10 corresponds to acar navigation apparatus installed in a vehicle, and the other one ofthe terminals 10 corresponds to a management terminal or a managementserver in a management center of the car navigation, or another carnavigation apparatus installed in another vehicle. Further, a historyrelating to calls in a certain period may be a communications history ora call history of a mobile phone.

The embodiments of the present invention may provide the fee managementsystem, the transmission system, and the non-transitory recording mediumstoring the fee management program, which may be able to charge theusers fees in a fair manner.

Note that components, or any combinations of expressions or thecomponents of the present invention that are applied to a method, anapparatus, a system, a computer program, a recording medium, and thelike may be effective as aspects of the invention.

The present invention can be implemented in any convenient form, forexample using dedicated hardware, or a mixture of dedicated hardware andsoftware. The present invention may be implemented as computer softwareimplemented by one or more networked processing apparatuses. The networkcan comprise any conventional terrestrial or wireless communicationsnetwork, such as the Internet. The processing apparatuses can compromiseany suitably programmed apparatuses such as a general purpose computer,a personal digital assistant, a mobile telephone (such as a WAP or3G-compliant phone) and so on. Since the present invention can beimplemented as software, each and every aspect of the present inventionthus encompasses computer software implementable on a programmabledevice. The computer software can be provided to the programmable deviceusing any storage medium for storing processor readable code such as afloppy disk, a hard disk, a CD ROM, a magnetic tape device or a solidstate memory device.

The hardware platform includes any desired kind of hardware resourcesincluding, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a random accessmemory (RAM), and a hard disk drive (HDD). The CPU may be implemented byany desired kind of and any desired number of processors. The RAM may beimplemented by any desired kind of volatile or non-volatile memory. TheHDD may be implemented by any desired kind of non-volatile memorycapable of storing a large amount of data. The hardware resources mayadditionally include an input device, an output device, or a networkdevice, depending on the type of the apparatus. Alternatively, the HDDmay be provided outside of the apparatus as long as the HDD isaccessible. In this example, the CPU, such as cache memory of the CPU,and the RAM may function as a physical memory or a primary memory of theapparatus, while the HDD may function as a secondary memory of theapparatus.

All examples and conditional language recited herein are intended forpedagogical purposes to aid the reader in understanding the principlesof the invention and the concepts contributed by the inventor tofurthering the art, and are to be construed as being without limitationto such specifically recited examples and conditions, nor does theorganization of such examples in the specification relate to a showingof the superiority or inferiority of the invention. Although theembodiment of the present invention has been described in detail, itshould be understood that various changes, substitutions, andalterations could be made hereto without departing from the spirit andscope of the invention.

The present application is based on and claims the benefit of priorityof Japanese Priority Application No. 2013-038766 filed on Feb. 28, 2013,the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

What is claimed is:
 1. A fee management system for managing attendingfees that are charged when a plurality of transmission terminals attenda conversation in a transmission management system, the transmissionmanagement system managing transmission of information associated withthe conversation between the transmission terminals, the fee managementsystem comprising: an acquisition unit configured to acquire attendinghours information and conversation quality information, the attendinghours information indicating attending hours for which each of thetransmission terminals has attended the conversation, the conversationquality information indicating conversation communication servicequality provided during the conversation; an attending hours computingunit configured to compute total attending hours based on the attendinghours information, the total attending hours indicating hours for whichthe respective terminals have attended the conversation; and anattending fee computing unit configured to compute an attending fee foreach of the terminals based on the corresponding total attending hoursand the conversation quality information.
 2. The fee management systemas claimed in claim 1, further comprising: a conversation qualitycomputing unit configured to compute an average conversation quality ofthe conversation attended by the terminals based on the conversationquality information, wherein the attending fee computing unit computesthe attending fee for each of the terminals based on the correspondingtotal attending hours and the computed average conversation quality ofthe terminal.
 3. The fee management system as claimed in claim 1,further comprising: a user management unit configured to manage useridentification information for identifying a user of each of theterminals and terminal identification information for identifying theterminal used by the user by associating the user identificationinformation with the terminal identification information; and anattending fee summing unit configured to compute the total attending feeof the user by summing the attending fee of each of the terminalsrepresented by the user identification information, for each of theusers.
 4. The fee management system as claimed in claim 3, furthercomprising: a charge unit configured to transmit an electronic mail forcharging the total attending fee to an electronic mail addresscorresponding to the user identification information of the user who ischarged for the total attending fee, wherein the user management unit isfurther configured to manage the electronic mail address of the userrepresented by the user identification information, for each of theusers.
 5. A transmission system comprising: a plurality of transmissionterminals configured to mutually transmit information associated with aconversation between the transmission terminals; and a fee managementsystem configured to manage attending fees that are charged when thetransmission terminals attend the conversation, wherein the feemanagement system includes an acquisition unit configured to acquireattending hours information and conversation quality information, theattending hours information indicating attending hours for which each ofthe transmission terminals has attended the conversation, theconversation quality information indicating conversation communicationservice quality provided during the conversation; an attending hourscomputing unit configured to compute total attending hours based on theattending hours information, the total attending hours indicating hoursfor which the respective terminals have attended the conversation; andan attending fee computing unit configured to compute an attending feefor each of the terminals based on the corresponding total attendinghours and the conversation quality information.
 6. The transmissionsystem as claimed in claim 5, wherein the fee management system furtherincludes a conversation quality computing unit configured to compute anaverage conversation quality of the conversation attended by theterminals based on the conversation quality information, wherein theattending fee computing unit computes the attending fee for each of theterminals based on the corresponding total attending hours and thecomputed average conversation quality of the terminal.
 7. Thetransmission system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the fee managementsystem further includes a user management unit configured to manage useridentification information for identifying a user of each of theterminals and terminal identification information for identifying theterminal used by the user by associating the user identificationinformation with the terminal identification information; and anattending fee summing unit configured to compute the total attending feeof the user by summing the attending fee of each of the terminalsrepresented by the user identification information, for each of theusers.
 8. The transmission system as claimed in claim 7, wherein the feemanagement system further includes a charge unit configured to transmitan electronic mail for charging the total attending fee to an electronicmail address corresponding to the user identification information of theuser who is charged for the total attending fee, wherein the usermanagement unit is further configured to manage the electronic mailaddress of the user represented by the user identification information,for each of the users.
 9. A fee management method in a fee managementsystem for managing attending fees that are charged when a plurality oftransmission terminals attend a conversation in a transmissionmanagement system, the transmission management system managingtransmission of information associated with the conversation between thetransmission terminals, the fee management method comprising: acquiringattending hours information and conversation quality information, theattending hours information indicating attending hours for which each ofthe transmission terminals has attended the conversation, theconversation quality information indicating conversation communicationservice quality provided during the conversation; computing totalattending hours based on the attending hours information, the totalattending hours indicating hours for which the respective terminals haveattended the conversation; and computing an attending fee for each ofthe terminals based on the corresponding total attending hours and theconversation quality information.
 10. The fee management method asclaimed in claim 9, further comprising: computing an averageconversation quality of the conversation attended by the terminals basedon the conversation quality information; and computing the attending feefor each of the terminals based on the corresponding total attendinghours and the computed average conversation quality of the terminal. 11.The fee management method as claimed in claim 9, further comprising:managing user identification information for identifying a user of eachof the terminals and terminal identification information for identifyingthe terminal used by the user by associating the user identificationinformation with the terminal identification information; and computingthe total attending fee of the user by summing the attending fee of eachof the terminals represented by the user identification information, foreach of the users.
 12. The fee management method as claimed in claim 11,further comprising: managing an electronic mail address of the userrepresented by the user identification information, the electronic mailaddress being managed for each of the users; and transmitting anelectronic mail for charging the total attending fee to the electronicmail address corresponding to the user identification information of theuser who is charged for the total attending fee.